New releases from Dagmar Miura

The Incidental Twin

Don’t mess with the hothead—or he might just mess with you. Slater Ibáñez is only interested in two kinds of guys: the ones he wants to punch, and the ones he sleeps with. Things get interesting when they start to overlap. A freelance investigator, Slater trolls the dark side of Los Angeles, rooting out insurance fraud, not afraid to use whatever means necessary to get things done, and not about to hold back with his fists. A queer antihero for a new age, Slater walks the line between ordinary life and the frayed fringes of society, keeping his balance with the back-channel support he gets from his idiot cop ex-boyfriend, Conrad, and regular squeeze Andy.

Two women who bear a remarkable resemblance to each other are brought together in a shelter for hillside residents fleeing the California wildfires. One of them, Gloria, asks Slater for help in tracking down the other, who’s using her identity to run a shady export business. As he digs into the imbroglio, Slater turns up a series of stolen luxury cars, a garage hidden in an old church, and a whole lot of suspicious shipping containers. Not the kind of guy to keep it in his pants, Slater is soon sleeping with sweet sexy Lincoln—a penny-ante lowlife and someone he knows he can’t trust. As Slater navigates a seedy slice of the underworld, the buff mechanic thoroughly clouds his judgment. Will Slater’s libido finally get him trapped in a situation he can’t punch his way out of?

“With Slater I waffle between concern for his bad habits and getting turned on by his raunchiness. Rarely do we meet a character … so in touch with his id.” —Chester Henry, author of The Margarita Solution

The Mythical Blond

Strange things happen in the desert Southwest. Hired to work a contract job at a remote military base in Nevada, psychic investigator Mason soon finds the Navy’s real motivation for luring him there involves an old friend and her ratty jalopy. On the way back to Los Angeles he gets entangled with Effie, who has an intensely dysfunctional relationship with her husband, and Iris, who recruits him to do an episode of reality TV. His understanding of the world begins to warp as Effie and Iris act out ancient mythologies in their own lives, dragging Mason into exploits that include safecracking, a séance, and a time-travel excursion.

This latest installment in the Mason Braithwaite Paranormal Mystery Series sees the disheveled redhead honing his psychic chops while digging deeper into paranormal phenomena. His boyfriend, Ned, and their roommate, Peggy, try to be stabilizing forces in Mason’s life, but the echoes of the past make him start to question the nature of reality itself.

“A whole new exciting slant on private eye-ing.… May we see more of Mason, his unabashedly psychic detective, and a lot more of Church’s no-nonsense plotting. I loved it—couldn’t put it down.” —David Osborn, best-selling author of Open Season, Murder On Martha’s Vineyard, and The French Decision

The Peroxide Pomp

Don’t mess with the hothead—or he might just mess with you. Slater Ibáñez is only interested in two kinds of guys: the ones he wants to punch, and the ones he sleeps with. Things get interesting when they start to overlap. A freelance investigator, Slater trolls the dark side of Los Angeles, rooting out insurance fraud, not afraid to use whatever means necessary to get things done, and not about to hold back with his fists. A queer antihero for a new age, Slater walks the line between ordinary life and the frayed fringes of society, keeping his balance with the back-channel support he gets from his idiot cop ex-boyfriend, Conrad, and regular squeeze Andy.

Interrupted late one night by Marisol, a desperate woman seeking help from his business partner, Slater agrees to go after her husband, Abner, a nebbishy accountant who’s making their divorce negotiations a nightmare. But why is Marisol traveling with a bodyguard, and why is she more interested in uncovering Abner’s secret assets than just warning him off? With Andy’s help, Slater infiltrates Abner’s office and befriends staffer Nolan on a quest to figure out where all the money is coming from. Unable to keep his libido in check, Slater winds up in bed with one of the principals, and struggles to keep the entanglement from clouding his judgment. After using his illicit Russian tech to surveille Abner and a degenerate religious nut, some covert deception with his elderly neighbor, and an excursion to a seedy bar in Albuquerque, Slater begins to unravel Marisol’s end game. Debilitated by his addictions dragging him closer to rock bottom, and wading through a sea of compulsive hookups with an array of guys, Slater is ultimately confronted with a moral dilemma that puts other people’s lives in the balance.

“It draws you in from the first page … like me, you will anxiously be waiting for the next one in the series.” —Amazon reader Out East

Sales Value Propositions: The Cutting Edge

Sales Value Propositions are among the most effective sales tools available to business-business salespeople when it comes to building and sustaining credibility and rapport with customers and prospects. At the same time, they are frequently overlooked and consequently underutilised at every level of the organisation, especially by sales and marketing professionals. This book explains and positions the powerful role and proven effectiveness of Sales Value Propositions in advancing customer relationships and winning sales opportunities.

“Now more than ever is there a need to have a salesforce that thinks beyond the immediate need to sell. To create an interaction with your customer that provides mutual value is imperative on the commercial stage. Being able to shift the customer’s mind-set to one of value creation is the key to long term repeat trading based on trust, accountability, and knowledge. Having ‘Sales Value Propositions: The Cutting Edge’ as a reference guide with intelligent insight and examples is a fabulous way to repeat and practice this vital commercial strategy.” —Rob Glasper, UK National Customer Service Manager

The Psychic Vegan Cookbook

It has never been easier to cook vegan, and you don’t even need to be psychic to do it. This all-plant-based cookbook is a tie-in with the Mason Braithwaite paranormal mystery series and contains some of the plucky LA psychic’s favorite dishes.

The sixty recipes are straightforward and focus on everyday Southwestern cooking. Simple and whole foods are the rule, and few nonstandard ingredients are involved—and when they do appear, they’re explained in detail. You won’t need to make a special trip to esoteric grocery suppliers, however, as this book is ideal for cooks just diving into plant-based home cooking.

Whether your motivation is eating healthier or the welfare of other sentient creatures, Henrietta Flores guides you through some plant-based versions of familiar dishes as well as some that might be new. Many are sure to become household favorites.

The Margarita Solution

Sometimes all a woman needs is a decent man—even if she’s not sleeping with him. For Celeste, her longtime friend Truman fills some of the gaps, leaving her the luxury of being choosier in her romantic pursuits. Truman has his own issues chasing guys, in his perpetual quest for the right man, and the pair of them manage not to get jealous when they target the same ones.

In this first novel in the Truman and Celeste series, Truman stumbles into a detective gig while trying to imbibe a margarita, and soon finds himself hunting for a guy named Jaime in a rough neighborhood, getting embroiled with a series of increasingly troublesome lowlifes, none of whom ever seem to tell him the truth. Drawn into the mystery, Celeste works her contacts in the art world and meets a guy who’s all sweet chocolate on the surface but has some toxic secrets underneath, all the while helping Truman avoid his more boneheaded instincts in his research and working up some job prospects for herself.

Join Truman and Celeste as they troll the gritty underbelly of Los Angeles, never hesitating to slam that cocktail, hit on guys, or ask the next relevant question.

“Truman is like that twinkie who slipped through your fingers that time—sweet and a little naive but whip-smart. And every man should have a reliable friend like Celeste. With these two booze hounds running around, the city promises to be a little wilder, and a whole lot more exciting.” —George Bixley, author of That First Heady Burn